


Do the Elves Just Call it "Root"?

by Librazenith (HerBrazenElegance)



Series: Inquisigays [1]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Recreational Drug Use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-08
Updated: 2015-07-08
Packaged: 2018-04-08 07:28:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4295934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HerBrazenElegance/pseuds/Librazenith
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shika Lavellan and her dear cousin, Aedan, have a few moments of family bonding time before Solas brings his old man smell in.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Do the Elves Just Call it "Root"?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [inatrice](https://archiveofourown.org/users/inatrice/gifts).



> I wanted to write about one of my babies partaking of the root, and a friend allowed me to use her inquisitor as well. Then this happened. Enjoy!

Shika flicks on a light and kicks off her shoes by the doorway, holds the door open and drops her bag on the ground unceremoniously. Behind her, Aedan does similarly, albeit with a bit more care, and closes the door behind him.

“Make yourself at home,” she says, already having bounded away to another room by the time he looks up from toeing off his shoes.

Left to his own devices, Aedan visually inspects the layout of the apartment – his boss’ apartment that his boss has never actually invited him into before, which only makes him feel wildly out of place. Still, it’s not so different from any other home. It’s small for two people, clearly a long-time bachelor pad that is still adjusting to the presence of another person, however small and out of the way she might be.

Aedan steps further into the apartment and is not at all surprised at the presence of several full bookshelves in the living room and dining area that the entryway immediately steps into. The shelves are neatly separated by subject and feature very few novels or works of fiction, though some history textbooks and tests yet to be graded lay open on the dining room table in the style of organised chaos that was typical of Solas. The furniture is simple and not overly flashy; it meshes well with the neutral colors of the room, although the plainness is broken up by the vibrant greens of potted plants in the corners and the windowsill. Dalish charms decorate the branches of some of the larger plants and hang in the window as well, little craft projects and feminine touches of Shika’s that have slowly made their way into Solas’ life as she settles in. He smiles and touches one with a familiar design of Sylaise on it, pleased that she can be so comfortable with him and hoping that perhaps it means he’ll be less of an ass about their shared heritage.

One can hope, anyway.

“You don’t have anywhere to be for a few hours, right?” Shika calls for him from what he assumes is the bedroom.

“I shouldn’t,” Aedan says. “Not unless there’s an emergency. Kellis should survive one night without me as long as Bull is with him.”

“Good.”

Aedan peers down the short hallway where her voice is coming from and is only slightly startled when her head pops out of one of the unlit doorways mischievously. She blows a plume of smoke into his face and giggles when he inhales deeply, chasing after the little wisps of what he recognises to be elf root.

“Sharing?” He asks.

“Of course.” She creeps out of the darkened room and walks Aedan backwards out to the living room. “Who do you take me for?”

“Solas doesn’t mind?” He bumps into the arm of the shorter sofa and sits himself on it.

“Nah,” she says, passing a palm-sized glass pipe with a depiction of Fen'harel on it to him. “You didn’t know he smokes?”

Aedan shakes his head, intrigued, and pats around his pockets despite knowing they’re empty save for his phone and pocket knife. “I don’t have anything to–”

“Oh.” Shika laughs. “I forget you’re a little disabled.”

He looks mildly offended. “Disabled?”

“You’re not a mage,” she says. “I don’t know how you still get around without magic.”

She motions for him to place it at his lips and when he does so, a tiny flame sparks up from her fingertips and heats it for him while he breathes in. She applauds him exultantly for his deep inhale and receives the glass piece from him.

He exhales smoothly, coughing a little at the end. “I guess I’m fortunate to be surrounded by so many talented mages.”

“I would’ve said spoiled. Anyway,” she says, as if she’s about to go on teasing him, but she takes a long pause to light up again and blow it in his face. “He’ll act like he doesn’t have a clue if you ask, but Solas is a fucking stoner.”

Unprepared for her judgemental tone, Aedan laughs abruptly, and she smiles from his reaction.

“He’s the one who got me into it, you know.”

“I guess it’s not all that unexpected,” he says, and then he realises he’s beginning to feel the effects, his thoughts becoming a hazy struggle to chase after as he speaks. “He doesn’t carry himself like someone who would. You, on the other hand…”

“Me? You must be mistaken,” she says, and then she takes another hit. “You’re one to talk, anyway, little lightweight. Should I offer you more or has this done you in already?”

“I might be good,” he admits. “That tastes different than what I’m used to, burns less. Is it not wild?”

Shika grins slyly. “It’s good, then? Strong. A special Trevelyan breed,” she declares, and at the curious raise of his eyebrows and ears she explains in greater detail.

“Cadence really likes royal elf root, as it turns out – the pretty kind, with blue on the edges? It’s pretty to her, too, I think, and so she grows quite a bit of it in her garden. Well, I was visiting one day with Tethys and asked her for some, and she was more than willing to oblige.”

“Does she know why you asked her for it?”

Shika giggles. “I don’t even think she realises you can use it for anything but healing little wounds and tummy aches.”

Aedan closes his eyes and shakes his head, a movement that’s oddly dizzying. His brain swims inside of his skull, growing foggier by the second, and he takes that moment to sag slowly into the couch, legs hanging over the edge of the armrest. Shika has gone quiet, and so he lies there for a long time – or maybe it’s only a few seconds, but he can’t seem to tell the difference anymore. He loses himself in whatever fleeting thoughts that come into his mind until he’s disturbed by Shika approaching him with a tinkling glass of water and making him sit up. He thanks her politely and accepts it.

“You didn’t do much, but I figure it’s a nice gesture,” she says. “Fucking hate cotton mouth.”

He nods in agreement and takes a sip, ready to say something when the door behind them opens up.

“ _Aneth ara_ ,” Solas calls.

Shika perks up at once and greets him similarly, pulling him into an embrace before he has time to put down the grocery bags on his arms. He leans over enough to kiss her and tell her quietly that she smells good, giving her a small, knowing smirk.

“You should join us,” she says.

“Us?” He asks, and that’s when he notices Aedan in the midst of sitting upright on the couch nearby, who gives him a small wave.

“Hey, boss.”

“Hello. I wasn’t expecting guests, but you’re a pleasant surprise. Welcome to our abode.”

Shika gives him the space to take off his shoes and offers to assist him with the bags. He thanks her and slides one off of his arm.

“I suppose you’re staying for dinner?” Solas asks him.

“Oh, uh, I wouldn’t want to intrude–”

“Yes,” Shika says. “He’ll stay.”

“Excellent,” Solas says, and he heads in the direction of the kitchen.

“You’re no intruder here, Aedan. Don’t worry. I may need help with part of this meal that Valyranni cannot give me anyway.”

Shika drops the groceries in her arms on the kitchen counter and looks disappointed right away.

“You bought meat?”

“Yes?” Solas eyes her with confusion.

“But it’s No Meat Monday.”

“It’s Tuesday,” Solas and Aedan say in unison.

Shika sags childishly in defeat and removes herself from the kitchen, not wanting to see the packaged meat while it’s still red and uncooked. Solas catches her before she can get too far away and brushes her long dreads out of the way to kiss her pouty forehead.

“You will not go hungry, _ma sa'lath_ ,” he reassures her. “What has you forgetting the day it is?”

“I skipped my language class for the day to be with Aedan,” she admits sheepishly.

“Disappointing, Valyranni,” he says with mock dissatisfaction. “What happened to the overachiever I once knew?”

“She’s right here,” Shika says. “And she has some new piercings for you.”

“For me?”

“Yes.” She shoots Aedan a shy glance, knowing that he was there to hold her hand while getting them. “They’re hidden right now, so you’ll have to find them.”

Solas makes a thoughtful noise and bumps their noses together. “Is that an invitation to get you undressed and go searching later?”

Shika flushes and turns her face away, and Solas kisses her cheek triumphantly. She shoves him away and seats herself at the dining table.

“Apologies, Aedan.” Solas returns to setting out the ingredients for dinner and putting away the rest.

“For what?” He says, taking that as his cue to get up and assist. “It’s actually kind of nice seeing this side of you.”

“'This side’ of me?”

“He means your weakened state,” says Shika cheekily. “Where you’re smiling and being romantic.”

“You wound me, _emm'asha_. Do I risk asking what the other side of me is like?

Aedan hesitates to answer, uncertain of whether or not he should joke about Solas’ regular office attitude while in his current state, but Shika cuts in with a laugh.

“Intimidating as hell,” she says. “You’re either friendly or cold as ice.”

“Oh,” he says, and for a minute he looks like he might even be hurt. “Well, I’m sorry if I’ve ever come off cold.”

“She’s exaggerating,” Aedan says, though he isn’t sure if that makes it any better.

There’s a bit of an awkward silence as Solas pulls out a cutting board and a knife, then searches fruitlessly for something else to aid with cooking. Shika sighs dramatically and drops out of the tall chair she’s in – tall for her, at least.

“Be pleasant, Solas. You’re making our guest uncomfortable,” she says in an attempt to lighten the mood.

Shielding her eyes from whatever the boys have dirtied the countertop with, she looks in a single cupboard for the bowl Solas is turning the kitchen upside-down for and hands it to him, smiling, and he thanks her with the expression returned. Before he can escape her, however, she presses the little glass pipe into his hand.

Solas hides his amusement convincingly. “You’re persistent.”

“Strange that I would even have to persist, knowing you,” she teases. “Aedan knows already. No use being shy.”

Solas gives her a mildly disapproving look, but with the damage having already been done, he yields and gestures for her to go retrieve more elf root if she wants him to do it so badly. She waltzes to the bedroom, victorious.

“Looks like you’re learning all kinds of things about me today,” he says to Aedan.

“All good things,” he assures him. “It’s kind of an elf thing to smoke, anyway, right?”

“I suppose you’re right,” Solas says, and then, definitely without a drop of sarcasm, he adds, “Does that mean I’ve won my way into acceptance with your people?”

“Maybe a little,” he answers. “You could be an ally.”

Solas scoffs. “I’m thrilled.”

It’s not the most positive response in the world, but Aedan appreciates him at least attempting to be humorous about it.

Shika returns and happily hands the pipe to Solas again having already packed it for him. He brings it to his mouth without any pause and lights it with the tip of his finger similarly to the way Shika had earlier, though he breathes much deeper than either of them had, sucking in a breath of cleaner air near the end with the last of his lung capacity. Then he coaxes Shika closer and kisses her on the exhale, shooing her out of the kitchen for good shortly after with a light slap on the rear that makes her yelp as she skitters away.

“Open that, if you will,” Solas asks Aedan when he returns to the counter, all seriousness again, pushing paper-wrapped meat toward him and tearing into a package of something else. Aedan and Shika share a brief glance and a smile across the room.

It’s a start.


End file.
